Apple's Don't Fall Very Far from the Tree

Let's catch up shall we! Orientation was probably the dumbest thing of my entire life. Mom and Dad abandoned me to deal with it myself because I was being super stubborn. It lasted a lot longer than we all had anticipated but I had to go through all of that anyway. Probably the only good thing that came out of it was that I met a ton of people there. Then again I'm meeting a ton of people anyways. I pride myself in knowing who people are, but more importantly: remembering people's names. Do you know how hard that is with 700 new students and you're meeting like 20 of those 700 every 10 minutes?!?! It's hard. Really hard. But my pride always gets in the way, and I refuse to back down from this challenge. You'd be surprised at how well I'm doing. When I see people for a second time most don't remember my name at all, to which I have to tell them that my pride won't let me forget their name, to which they respond usually with something along the lines of "well…I remember faces." Good enough! After orientation we went to Walmart. Walmart is basically like the holiest place on the whole island…other than the temple. The college kids basically worship it. It is the source of everything you need and more. Inside you could always tell who was a college student based on two things: if there were two adults and a college aged kid walking frantically around and you saw them more than once in the store, and secondly if there was a fan in their basket. Fans are a definite must. While walking around Walmart I realized something…I had no idea how much CRAP I use every day of my life! Thing after thing after thing we tossed into the cart until it was like overflowing. The worst part: I use all of it. So far there hasn't been anything that I've forgotten but still. I'm not looking forward to the part where I actually have to buy it myself. Ick. Mom and Dad and I went snorkeling a couple of days later. It was super fun! We got the gear from the people and were asking them questions like: where's the best place to go, will I see a sea turtle, when do you close, will I see a sea turtle, how do you use this mask thing, will I see a sea turtle: just simple regular questions. We went to Shark's Cove and I was really excited. I'm pretty sure I was going to burst. Getting down to the sheltered area was probably the hardest part. It's rocky and not so fun. Once down there it's into the water you go! Then you just have to swim around and look at fish. It was so much fun. I saw so many different fish. The only down fall were the sea urchins! They were everywhere! I seriously hoped they weren't poisonous, because I most definitely got poked by them multiple times in multiple places. I'm not dead yet, so I think it's pretty safe to say that they aren't. A few days later Mom and Dad took me to the LOST beach! Up until this point in time, my Hawaiian experience was not complete. The beach was just like it looked on TV. Well…it was what was on TV but to see it in real life was mind blowing. I just kept thinking of all these famous people sitting on this beach filming this awesome TV show. I didn't want to leave…ever. I could've died happily on that beach. Mom and Dad wouldn't let me stay though, so we left and drove over to another beach where they saw some sea turtles a few days ago. We walked down to the beach and there they were! Three turtles just sleeping on the beach! I almost died. We took picture after picture and then I realized I was hungry and we went and ate food. The next day was the last day I was going to see Mom and Dad. I hadn't been looking forward to that day at all. They came and picked me up from campus so I could eat dinner with them. They showed up and surprised me with a bike! Well, it was my money that bought the bike but they brought it to me and put it together...well Walmart put it together but they brought it to me! Yay for not having to walk all across campus! (Which, mind you, is like a 7 minute walk around the big circle. It's not that big but still!) It is the cutest little bike ever! I can look around my courtyard and see like four others that are just exactly like it, except none of them have a cute little white basket and a license plate that says Doodlebug on it. I am indeed unique! We ate dinner and they brought me back to campus for final hugs and "see you over skype" type goodbyes. I most definitely cried, but I'm lucky enough to have awesome friends who ran to my side to comfort me. Sad to be all alone in the world? Nah. It was the bestest time having Mom and Dad with me here and I talk to them almost every single day. What can I say? I'm the apple. And I definitely didn't fall far off the tree. J

Falling Down a Rabbit Hole

I honestly feel like Alice when she fell down the rabbit hole! But instead of landing in Wonderland…I landed in Paradise. Everything's strange…different...new. I feel completely and utterly lost…and I think I like it. We catch a bus to find our rental car and I start to think that I have tons of stuff with me. Hopefully when I come home I'll be lucky enough to be like Tess from 27 Dresses and meet "the nicest people on planes". We get our car and load up. It's a cute, blue, Mazda CX-9 and I think I want to keep it. It becomes apparent very quickly, that Mom and Dad hate this car. Good thing it's just a rental. We ask some guy for directions and he lies to us and we have to figure out where to go ourselves. We drive around and while it's only 2 in Hawaii I feel like it's 6. I missed my nap and I'm hungry. That pretty much equals cranky in my book. We drive around and get caught in traffic that would make New Yorkers envious. There's one solitary highway and it seems like every car on the island is on it at this point in time. I stare out the window and see a thriving metropolis which isn't exactly what I was expecting, but we're not really on the right part of the island. We inch along like snails in traffic and I decide to read some more. I get a few more pages in before I accidentally fall asleep. By the time I wake up I feel like my stomach is eating itself and I feel like I'm about to die unless I get food right away. We continued to drive and I finally get a good look at the scenery. Everything is so very green except the grass…which is weird to me. The mountains are humongous and the ocean is even bigger. It's the perfect color of aqua closest to the beaches which are the perfect color of tan. The further I look the ocean turns to a light blue, and then, what I assume is the drop off, the ocean goes a dark blue. It's breathtaking. We drive around a corner and it's like a perfect scene from a movie or something. There's a stretch of beach leading up to another strip of lava rocks that leads to the ocean which is sparkling because of the sunlight. The waves come in and crash on the rocks and you can smell the salt in the air. There are all different types of trees and greenery around the area to top it all off. I want to take a picture but I kind of want food more. While it's not right away, I get food eventually. We stop at this place called Cholo's. It's a Hawaiian/Mexican restaurant that my uncle recommended. Inside is very exciting. There's a football game going on the TV right above the bar which is surrounded by people cheering and taking shots of whatever like crazy. I can't decide if they're cheering for the game or because of how many drinks they've all had. There's a guy with dreadlocks behind the bar making drinks like he's been doing it since he was born. There's a lot of pretty waitresses running around and one guy who looks like a less attractive version of Christian Bale. The walls are filled with creepy decorations each with a little white paper on it. I come to find out the papers are price tags. Haha. Tourist towns. They'll sell you anything. I take forever ordering because I don't know what I want because I secretly want the whole menu. Dad and I decide to split some stuff and I continue to scarf down chips…no salsa though, it's too spicy. The food comes and I eat until I feel like I'm going to explode. We continue driving to our condo and hopefully to find Foodland so we can buy something for breakfast. As we're driving we come around a curve and I look out at the ocean. It's blue as far as the eye can see, and I begin to realize that I don't know where the ocean ends, and the sky begins. It's all one big mass of blue and it's absolutely the most beautiful thing I've seen so far. We're driving close to the beaches so there are cars, people, and surfers everywhere. We see yet another absolutely breathtaking scene at Shark's Cove and another while driving along sunset beach. The only problem, we can't find Foodland anywhere. We drive and drive until we come to the Foodland by the BYU-Hawaii campus. So we just decide to stop there. We drive by the temple which is all lit up and glowing. It's the prettiest thing around by far. We check into the condo and I finally get to sleep. With some fussing over bed situations I end up the floor on a mattress like pad which is surprisingly more comfortable than my alternative on the couch. With the fan on to control the heat, I go to sleep because I know tomorrow's going to be a very long and exciting day. Tomorrow is really the first day of the rest of my life.

"A Whole New World" -Aladdin

I'm at home, not doing much of anything even though I know I should be. I start to pack up the rest of my things and take one long last look at home. Mom and Dad and I anxiously wait for Robyn to come and to take us to the airport. There are like 7 suitcases in the front room and like 4 of them are mine. Robyn shows up and brought Emily with her which was a nice surprise. We load things in her Escalade and start to drive to the airport. Robyn and Emily drop us off on the curb and as we're saying our goodbyes Dad says "Where's your violin?" I think my heart just skipped a couple beats. I thought it was in the car. We all double check everything and realize...it's not there. Yep, I'm about to die of a heart attack. Robyn doesn't even hesitate and quick as a whip drives back to the house to pick it up. While Mom waits for my violin, Dad and I go through security pretty fast with no problems. We stop at a bookshop so Dad can buy a soduku book and if I just happen to grab The Help then that's ok too. I bet Dad that I can finish it before the plane lands. Our plane is supposed to be packed and that's very apparent by the hoards of people by our gate. I sit at another gate facing ours with all the luggage while Dad goes to get some food because I'm starving as usual. I'm so excited to read my book I can't even stand it but instead I decide to text people about how excited I am instead of just reading it. Mom shows up with the violin, Dad shows up with the food, and I'm one happy camper. We shove food down just in time for them to call attention that our plane is loading. They load the babies and the old people first, then the first class people, and then the people sitting at the back of the plane. We don't quite understand what the lady is saying so we almost miss our boarding. We jump in line and I stub my toe. It hurts but I just keep walking. I shove my carry-on and my backpack into the only cubby that will fit both. They just happen to be huge. I sit and actually get a look at my stubbed toe just in time to see that it's bleeding. I get like three band-aids from the nice flight attendant and try and relax a little. Everyone's finally on the plane and they start the engines and start giving us the security and safety precautions. Images of the TV show Lost flash through my mind and I become antsy. The plane gains more and more speed and I feel the plane tip up and fly into the sky. We don't level out for a while and I kind of feel like I'm going to be sick. To take my mind off of it I turn to my book. I can't really see because the windows are closed so I attempt to turn my reading light on. It won't work. I try like six or seven times because two or three just isn't enough. I am determined to get it to work…but it doesn't. I am very put out about this fact. So I turn to watching movies for 6 hours. I watch X-Men First Class with Mom even though we've already seen it once. It's just as good the second time. I attempt to play Zuma and even an on flight Trivia game! I come to the conclusion that I'm the best guesser I know thanks to Mrs. Riley and my letter of the day! (Or letter of the round in this case.) I do really well until I do really bad and then I quit. I decide to maybe watch a TV episode but I've seen them all. Partly due to the fact that I watch way too much TV. I turn on Rio and try to take a nap. My sleeping position isn't exactly the greatest because my chin is resting on my left hand which is resting on an arm rest. Every time I'm practically asleep, my arm slips off the rest, which causes my hand to slip out from under my chin, which causes my head to bob and jerk me awake. Regardless of this process I still attempt to sleep. The pilot says we're landing soon and we can open the windows to see the island below. I can't really see except occasionally from side to side but I don't care because now there's enough light to read! Hooray! I get through the first couple chapters then the captain announces that we're going to begin our decent. I feel the plane shift slightly downwards and I don't know how much fun this is going to be. I try to focus on reading but at one point we do a pretty big drop. I feel my stomach travel up my spine and I remember why I hated the Tower of Terror so much at Disneyland. After six hours we finally land. As we're getting off the plane it doesn't feel much different. Until we actually get into the airport, then it's like a whole new world.